"I've been battle tested, folks," said Harman, who has won tight elections in her Los Angeles-area district. "And my response every time has been to defend myself, to stick to the issues and to run on my record and not to get in the gutter with other people."

Harman never mentioned Checchi by name. Much of the time he was only a pronoun. But she defended the voting record that Checchi has criticized in ads for the past two weeks.

In one ad, Checchi states Harman "even voted with Newt Gingrich to shut down the federal government."

At the time the vote was cast, Nov. 16, 1995, the federal government was already shut down.

On that day, Harman voted, with House Speaker Gingrich, R- Ga., and 47 other Democrats, for a stopgap spending measure. It was opposed by the White House because it called on President Clinton to balance the federal budget within seven years. Clinton wanted a 10-year limit.

Checchi's campaign manager, Darry Sragow, admitted the government was already shut down, but he insisted the ad was accurate. "The vote was on a measure that kept it shut down longer," he said.

The White House said at the time it did not consider the Democrats who voted for the measure as deserters, but noted that many had voted for a balanced budget in the past and could not afford to be accused of changing their minds.

The measure Harman voted on was sent to the Senate and was not part of the final resolution a few days later. In the agreement that was reached three days later, Clinton agreed to the seven-year limit, but won other concessions.

In the same ad, Checchi accuses Harman of voting "to tax Social Security benefits."

The ad refers to Clinton's 1993 budget, which did call for a slight adjustment for the wealthiest seniors. Harman and all major Democrats voted for it; Gingrich and all of the House and Senate Republicans voted against it.

Sragow said his candidate "would have voted against the measure" as written.

But former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta said it was "the most important vote of the Clinton administration," and today the bill is widely credited with helping to kick the nation's economic recovery in gear.

Harman's campaign said Checchi and his wife, Kathy, each gave the maximum allowable contribution of $1,000 to Harman in June of 1994 -- after the Democratic congresswoman cast the votes he now so strongly condemns in his ads.

Checchi's campaign confirmed the contribution.

Checchi also says Harman "voted with Newt Gingrich to raise Medicare premiums and to cut home health care services. . . . She voted to cut Social Security."

The ad refers to an amendment by Democrat Tim Penny and Republican John Kasich -- an attempt to reduce federal spending by $90.4 billion over five years.

It did include $34 billion in Medicare cuts; Harman's campaign noted that was just one-third of the $115 billion in cuts eventually enacted by Congress as part of the 1997 balanced budget.

Harman voted with 110 Democrats for the measure authored by Representative Bill Orton, D-Utah, to balance the budget by 2002 -- a vote against a Gingrich alternative. Harman's campaign argued the measure was not a cut in Social Security; however, it assumed a 0.5 percent correction in the Consumer Price Index and its cost of living adjustment -- one which some economists suggest is realistic.